


Dark Water

by perihadion



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)
Genre: Aerti Week 2019, Angst, Canon Compliant, F/F, Kissing, Post-Final Fantasy VII: Disk 1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2019-10-09
Packaged: 2020-11-28 11:54:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20966144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perihadion/pseuds/perihadion
Summary: A short fic written for AerTi Week 2019: a vision seen in sleep; a dream.





	Dark Water

Tifa never told Cloud about her meetings with Aeris. They never talked about it; it was unspoken, understood. She never knew when she would see her, but at times she caught glimpses in the daylight — out of the corner of her eye, a blush of pink, or a laugh like ringing bells — and she would think, “Tonight, then.”

They always met in the same place. Once she asked Aeris why there, and Aeris said, “This is the place where the veil is the thinnest — neither part of your world, or mine. It’s sort of between worlds.”

Between worlds? — but weren’t they both part of the same world, the same planet? Aeris had died, but her spirit was still part of the same world. Aeris had laughed when she said that and replied, “I can’t explain, I’m sorry.”

It didn’t matter. For a few hours they could be together in the dark, slumbering woods and look at the stars between the rustling leaves and branches. The ground was wet, dewy, and smelled of earth — filled with crawling, living things. Violet mist rose from the lake.

Tifa laid her head on Aeris’s chest, and felt her breathing, felt her heart beat. It was almost torture at times to be close to her like this and not be able to keep her. Aeris often talked a lot during these meetings: how is Cloud, how is everyone? But at other times she was like this, quiet, and soft. She threaded her fingers through Tifa’s hair; Tifa clung to her, buried her face in Aeris’s neck, pressing kisses to her clavicle.

Aeris shook beneath her, and Tifa realised she was laughing. She looked up into Aeris’s face. “What?”

“You didn’t notice?” Aeris said, indicating Tifa’s arm. Tifa frowned, and looked: there was a snail, slowly working its way up her forearm, which lay in the wet grass, leaving a silver, shimmering trail on her skin.

She smiled, and blushed. She had felt the snail’s light touch, but — “I thought it was you.”

Aeris gently took the snail from Tifa’s skin and placed it down on the ground near a small cluster of gnarled mushrooms. “There!” she said. “That’s tastier than my girlfriend, I promise.”

It was at moments like this that Aeris seemed more alive to Tifa than anyone she knew. She pressed Aeris down into the soft earth and, before she could object, kissed her hard and breathless.

They never talked about it; she knew one day she would have to move on. Aeris would recede from her life, and they would stop meeting like this. But in this moment nothing mattered except that they were here together beneath the dark trees and the stars, between the roots, in the grass. She knew Aeris felt the same.


End file.
